Hizbullah Responds to Zionist Attacks on Lebanon

The recent Hizbullah operation - codenamed 'Fulfilled Promise' and planned for months - launched against a group of Apartheid Israel's soldiers occupying the Shebaa Farms area of Lebanon has opened a second front in the Zionist state's genocidal pursuit of 'Greater Israel'.

Raising the same issue invoked by the Palestinian Authority concerning the Zionist POW, Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah demanded the release of all Lebanese prisoners held by Apartheid Israel.

"We aren't responding [to the Israeli operations]." Nasrallah said. "For more than a year, I've been saying that we want to kidnap soldiers in order to exchange prisoners. Every time I said so, Israel went into high alert along the border. We decided to kidnap soldiers in order to end the matter of prisoners."

"The whole world will not be able to retrieve the two captured Israeli soldiers except through indirect negotiations that will lead to a swap with our detainees in Israel. It would be a delusion if anyone thinks that they can retrieve the captured Israeli soldiers.."

"Of course, Lebanon, our officials ... Syria ... Iran ... are all under heavy pressure from the international community ... to release these soldiers ... But we are used to pressure."

To this, Nasrallah joked: "What do they want us to do? Hand over the soldiers and apologize? What kind of world are they living in?"

Pro-Apartheid Ha'aretz reported that, "Nasrallah warned Israel against a broad assault in Lebanon and said he did not want to drag the region into war. He added, however, that 'our current restraint is not due to weakness... if they choose to confront us, they must be prepared for surprises.'"

Ignoring both Nasrallah's statement and the Lebanese government's call for a "comprehensive cease fire," Apartheid Israel has chosen the same approach towards Hizbullah as its did with the Palestinian government: overwhelming collective punishment on the civilian population.

With the launch of 'Operation Just Reward,' The Daily Star reported that "52 civilians have died... as Israel continues to destroy Lebanon’s national infrastructure with aerial bombs."

Another article in the paper added addional details concerning the ongoing crisis:

Lebanese officials say that a family of 10 and another family of seven were killed in their homes in the village of Dweir, the officials said.

Israeli fighter-bombers continued their assault on Lebanon striking a Shiite Muslim prayer house in a village in the eastern Bekaa valley of Lebanon today.

Learning from its recent past and fearing the catastrophic consequences of such a move, the Zionist army explicitly rejected sending ground forces into Lebanon in an attempt to re-occupy the Southern part of that country. However, Apartheid Israel's launched air strikes on a wide range of targets. Ha'aretz reports that it attacked 3 Lebanese military bases and imposed a land, sea, and air blockade on Lebanon.

The Daily Star reports that"Israeli planes bombed Beirut's international airport early on Thursday," forcing it to close for 48 hours. The fallout from this strike may spread throughout the region because the paper is now reporting that "the Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry confirmed that two Kuwaiti nationals were killed Thursday by Israel’s air bombardments on southern Lebanon. A female Asian domestic worker accompanying the two was also killed. " Additionally:

Israeli warplanes also fired a missile on a building housing Hizbullah television station Al-Manar in Beirut's southern suburbs, slightly wounding three employees, the channel said Thursday.

In a later raid, Israeli jets struck hill overlooking the eastern city of Baalbek, where Al-Manar has a relay antenna, police said.

Additionally, the Zionist government threatened to launch attacks against the capital city of Beirut, carrying out flybys over the city. In response to this threat, a statement by Hizbullah warned that it "it will quickly shell the city of Haifa and nearby areas if the southern suburbs and the city of Beirut are subjected to any direct Israeli aggression."

Ha'aretz reported that "Hizbullah has declared it has over 10,000 rockets to use against Israel." Far from idle rhetoric, events over the past 24 hours demonstrate that Hizbullah's warning must be taken seriously. Ma'an reports that, "Hizbullah announced in a statement issued on Wednesday evening that it bombarded an Israeli command site in the Galilee region of northern Israel... with artillery and rockets in response to the 'ongoing Israeli aggression'."

Since the Zionist invasion of Lebanon began a day ago, the resistance movement has mounted a relentless rocket barrage that has killed 2 Zionist settlers, wounded 90 more, and while forcing thousands upon thousands of colonialist settlers to flee.

The pro-Apartheid Jerusalem Post reports extensively on these attacks:

Katyusha rockets landed in the northern Israeli towns of Karmiel, Hatzor, and Majd el-Kurum, as well as several other communities, throughout the north on Thursday afternoon.

At least 28 people were wounded in Majd el-Kurum - two moderately and seven from shrapnel. Others were lightly wounded and suffering from shock....

At least 90 Israelis have been wounded since the onset of Operation Just Reward Wednesday afternoon.

Residents of Safed, Rosh Pina Hatzor and Karmiel were ordered to enter bomb shelters and fortified rooms on Thursday afternoon, as other residents of the north were ordered to do earlier.

The calls came after Katyushas fell in Safed's immigration center, old marketplace, Safed College and the Amit Center.

Some 21 Safed residents were wounded. At least two people were wounded at the immigration center. Two people were seriously wounded from shrapnel, while some were lightly wounded, and many more were in shock...

Earlier, on Thursday morning, one woman was killed and 29 were wounded - one seriously - when four Hizbullah-fired Katyusha rockets landed in central Nahariya. The woman was killed while sitting on her fifth-floor balcony. A rocket hit a floor above, cut through the ceiling and killed her.

A short while later, two Katyusha rockets fell near Kibbutz Hagoshrim. Buildings in the area shook from the impact....

Some 60 katyushas have been fired into northern Israel since Thursday morning.

Many northern residents have begun leaving the area, fearing more attacks...

Nahariya Mayor Jackie Sabag said the whole town has shut down, with businesses closed. Sabag urged all residents to comply with army orders to stay in underground shelters.

All soldiers serving in Northern Command Headquarters in Safed also went down to shelters due to Katyusha attacks.

Katyushas also fell on Thursday morning in Kfar Nasi in the Galilee and in Kibbutz Mahanayim, and along with the rockets in Karmiel, signified an increase in the range of Katyusha rockets to 20-30 kilometers. There were no immediate reports of casualties in the attacks. Hizbullah said that in some of its attacks it was using a rocket called "Thunder 1" for the first time, which may have a longer range than older Katyushas.

On Thursday morning alone, there were confirmed Katyusha attacks on Nahariya, Rosh Pina, Kibbutz Hagoshrim, Kibbutz Mishmar Hayarden, Gadot, Kfar Nasi, Beit Hillel, Kibbutz Mahanayim, Kibbutz Kabri, Mount Hermon, Netiv Haasarah, Mount Meron, Shlomi, Zar'it.

By the afternoon, rockets hit Karmiel, Safed, Hatzor, and Majd el-Kurum as well.

While the attacks launched against Apartheid Israel drawn international condemnation, far more vocal criticism has fallen upon Apartheid Israel - even from some of its most steadfast allies (except Uncle Sam, who called the Zionist state an 'agent of peace'). France's foreign minister called the attacks on Lebanon "a disproportionate act of war," and said he supported Beirut's calls for U.N. Security Council intervention.

The Daily Star reports that Greece expressed "'serious concern' over Israeli attacks in Lebanon' and noted as well that "Italy criticized Israeli retaliatory attacks on Lebanon as disproportionate and dangerous."

As right wingers in Apartheid Israel contemplate whether or not to launch another ground invasion of Lebanon, the Zionist state must decide whether it should listen to the world community, address the issue of prisoners, and tamp down the situation or isolate itself as a pariah state to an even greater extent than it has already done and escalate the conflict.

Apartheid Israel has the power to invoke either option at any point, since it alone has the power to negotiate a prisoner release and it alone has the capacity to open up a third front with either Syria or Iran simply by spreading lies and misinformation and using those lies to justify more aggression.

It much choose carefully and with the knowledge that the wrong decision so could very possibly trigger a World War whose outcome would be profoundly unfavorable to the Apartheid regime.